Wikipedia as a literary short story: "The Earth, Thy Great Exchequer, Ready Lies" by Jo Lloyd

Somebody was doing research and came across a late 16th century-late 17th century pioneer in exploitation of England's mineral wealth. This guy's name was Humphrey Mackworth. He was semi-well-connected, and had some success translating his wife's inherited mineral rights into a successful operation. He pioneered some technical advances, including using wind power to drive the carts that shipped the coal and silver his company mined. The poet Thomas Yalden wrote an ode to Mackworth, which includes, among other lines quoted in the story, the title.

That person doing the research wrote a story about a slightly fictionalized version of Mackworth. The story occasionally shows some sympathy to the highly self-pitying Mackworth, but mostly looks at him as a harbinger of things to come, of much more ruthless and efficient capitalists who are far better at "removing the smiling offspring of nature's womb," as Mackworth's admiring poet put it. There is a dream sequence right at the end where Mackworth sees a vision of this future in which the whole Earth is constantly being denuded of its wealth, a vision Mackworth seems to approve of.

And that's the story.

I'm trying to figure out why I didn't really connect to this story the way I have with other historical fiction. It does succeed to some extent with doing what all good historical fiction does by fully entering its time period. There's a certain charm to the language of this story, from its use of "by-our-lady" where modern people would say "fucking" in its disapproving adjectival form to its frequent use of now nearly defunct words (cozener, blemmye, hornpipe). Mackworth, called "HM" throughout the story, is pathetically believable as a beleaguered entrepreneurial sadsack. He thinks to himself, with hyperbole we appreciate but he does not, that "Not Hercules, not even Job himself, has had to overcome more obstacles." I did chuckle when he tried to save face in front of his employees while on his horse and determined that, "A righteous man  rarely needs to canter, but the importance of his affairs justifies a trot. "

Lloyd even gets right, I think, what HM should represent: a foretaste of the industrial age and the now post-industrial age, with its environmental degradation, its interruption to organic modes of life, its shady business practices. HM is not stupid. He may have gotten himself into a mess by taking unwise loans and then dipping into the company accounts for his own sake too often, but he was a "master of the elements." His optimism--and the poet's equal optimism--at the prospect that nature's bounty is endless and ours for the taking is a Utopian view. They believe they will find a "second Eden," but their "second Eden" is contrasted with the "second Adam" in the nature-wise "Tall John" who guides HM toward a possible new vein they are scouting for. Lloyd's instincts were right about what HM means.

But somehow, it just didn't feel real to me. It felt like a highly researched story where the research overwrites the fiction. Most of the details can be found on Mackworth's Wikipedia page. When I watched Madmen, I was lost in how fully the characters were living in a different time. I actually felt pangs of anxiety for them when I realized they were getting close to JFK's assassination, because I sensed that people who thought the way they did would not be able to handle something so profoundly challenging to their world view. But that's because Don Draper and Peggy and the gang weren't real historical people. That left the writers free to make them real fictional people, people who felt more real than real.

I never had that sense with "Exchequer." Maybe calling him "HM" instead of his full name was an attempt to distance the writing from the real person, to make the character feel like a supercilious monogram of a real historical person, but I felt like it wasn't enough. Especially because with all the quoting of the real poem about Mackworth, it was nine seconds of Googling to find the real person (which I did early on). I think this would have been a better story if the main character had been someone like Mackworth who did some of the things he did, but also had a different name and was more fully fictional.

It was skillfully crafted, and I'd be happy to read another story from Lloyd. Freddie Mercury covering "The Great Pretender" isn't worth many listens, but you can still tell it's Freddie by-our-lady Mercury singing it, and you know that given another vehicle, you'll hear something special. If I come across Lloyd again, I'll probably go out of my way a bit to check it out.